Bolland's pair helps Leafs top Flyers, start 2-0

Dave Bolland scored a pair of goals, including the tiebreaker 2:30 into the third period, Jonathan Bernier made 31 saves and the Maple Leafs beat Philadelphia 3-1 Wednesday night to spoil the Flyers' season opener.

Phil Kessel also had a goal for the Leafs, who are off to a 2-0 start.

"Definitely a good start," said Bernier, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings. "It's never easy to come into this building, especially on a back-to-back. We got in to a little bit of a (penalty killing) problem but we came back from it, and that's what a good team does."

Toronto right wing Joffrey Lupul set up the go-ahead goal. He slipped a pass from behind the net in front through Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn's reach to Bolland, who beat Mason for a 2-1 lead.

Bolland's last goal was the clincher for the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals last summer. He got another goal in the final minute on a sharp-angle shot on Mason.

Bolland also did his job on the defensive end, going against Philadelphia's top line and holding them to one goal.

"We felt that having the flexibility to put Bolland up there gives us another competitive veteran guy to play up against those guys," Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said.

It was a disappointing start for the Flyers, who are coming off a rare season in which they failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2007 and only the second time since 1995. They went 23-22-3 and were 10th in the Eastern Conference with 49 points in a lockout-shortened year.

Toronto snapped a seven-year playoff drought last year before losing to eventual Eastern Conference champion Boston in seven games in the first round. They added Bolland and Bernier in hopes of making a deeper run this year.

"They played quite physical, so it took us a while to maybe get comfortable, or get our legs under us but Bernie did a great job for us," Lupul said.

After beating the rival Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in a fight-filled season opener Tuesday night, the Leafs started slow against the Flyers.

Despite dominating the first period, the Flyers nearly had nothing to show for it until Brayden Schenn scored with 6.9 seconds left before intermission.

Former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier, the Flyers' biggest offseason acquisition, set up the goal with nifty stickhandling around the back of the net. He sent a perfect centering pass to Brayden Schenn, who beat Bernier to the short side.

"I thought we moved the puck well," Lecavalier said. "We had Grade A chances but couldn't put it away. The first period we had momentum the whole time. We had a lot of opportunities. We could've gone up 2-0 and gotten a bigger cushion but we didn't."

Kessel evened it at one when he scored with 2:54 left in the second. Mason made an outstanding kick save with his left skate on the initial shot, but the rebound bounced out to Kessel, who buried it.

"You make the initial save and you do your best to get in position for the next shot and they made some good plays on the rebounds," Mason said. "So I've got to give them credit."

After suffering through inconsistent play in net from Ilya Bryzgalov the last two years, the Flyers will take it.

"He did well," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said of Mason. "He kept us in the game. He made some big saves for us. Any time a goalie does that, he gives you a chance to win."

Philadelphia missed a chance to regain the lead before intermission. Leafs defenseman Paul Ranger pulled down Wayne Simmonds to give the Flyers a penalty shot with 3.1 seconds to go in the second, but Bernier stoned Simmonds, who tried a forehand shot at the five hole.

NOTES: Bernier started in net after James Reimer made 34 saves in the win at Montreal on Tuesday. ... Mason got the nod for Philadelphia over Ray Emery, who was 17-1 for the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks last year. ... This was the first of three meetings between the teams. They won't play again until March. ... Leafs forward David Clarkson served the second game of a 10-game suspension he received for leaving the bench to join a fight in a preseason game. ... Brayden Schenn not only scored Philadelphia's first goal of the season, but was involved in the first fight. He dropped the gloves in the first period against Lupul. ... Peter Laviolette became the second coach in Flyers history to coach in five different seasons. The other was Hall of Famer Fred Shero, who led Philadelphia to its only two Stanley Cup titles in 1973-74 and 1974-75.